The Guidelines provide recommendations and considerations for students, educators and clients alike. Broken into clear and concise points, the Guidelines aim to provide clarity and guidance around real client projects in school — opportunities that can sometimes bring up questions around fair processes and ethics.

“For years, design educators and students have been partnering with businesses and professionals with the goal of providing an experience of completing projects in the real world. Doing so in an academic setting brings its own set of questions, challenges, constraints and unknowns where there is often no standard roadmap, rules or guidelines to help ensure the projects are successful,” says Wendy Gray RGD, previously Co-chair of the Ethics Committee. “The new RGD Guidelines for Real Projects for Real Clients in an Academic Setting is a simple yet concise guide to help design educators and students navigate through real client projects and set the stage with the companies and clients involved. We hope the creation of this Guide will offer support in respect to clarification, setting expectations and proper management of a project.”

“The Association has received numerous questions from students asking ethics-related questions about the client-based projects they're working on,” adds Jenn Taback RGD, previously the Chair of the Ethics Committee. “Our hope is that the Guidelines will provide students, educators and clients with best practices to help ensure that these projects are a positive, educational experience for everyone involved.”

Click here to download the Guidelines.

With over 4,000 Members across Canada, the RGD is a place where professional designers share information, support and adhere to ethical best practices and advocate for a greater understanding of the value of design and effective processes for selecting and working with professional designers.